Hillary Clinches Nomination, General Election Begins Today

As the 2016 primary season draws to an end, with the exception of the District of Columbia Democratic Caucus on June 14th, the general election will come down to a battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. As of Monday this week, the Associated Press declared Hillary the presumptive nominee, much to the chagrin of Bernie Sanders who cried foul since the count is based on pledged delegates and superdelegates.

“Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone,” Clinton said during a victory speech in Brooklyn, New York, adding that it was the “first time in our nation’s history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee of the United States.”

It’s an achievement the former secretary of state has called “emotional.” When The Associated Press declared that she had reached the magic number of needed delegates on Monday night, she told a crowd of supporters in California, “We are in the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment.”

Clinton took a few swipes at the Republican presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, calling him “temperamentally unfit” to be president.
“When he says, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ that is code for ‘Let’s take America backwards,'” she said.

And in an emotional tribute to her late mother, Clinton talked very personally about how it felt to be the presumptive nominee.

“On the very day my mother was born, in Chicago, Congress was passing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment finally gave women the right to vote,” Clinton said as the crowd danced and cheered, adding, “I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic Party’s nominee.”

Here is video of Hillary’s full remarks from Tuesday night:

Donald Trump also spoke on Tuesday night following his uncontested wins in the Republican primaries:

Trump has been taking a decent amount of criticism from within his own party after referring to the “Mexican” heritage of the Judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuit. Some Republicans, such as Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, went so far as un-endorsing the GOP presumptive nominee over the issue.

Bernie Sanders is set to meet with President Obama on Thursday, perhaps to pave the road toward party unity in the coming weeks. The President has not yet endorsed Hillary, though it is expected soon.

Nate Ashworth is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for almost a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016.